The Senate Appropriations Committee has completed work on S.
2784, the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill for
FY 2003. The House Energy and Water Development
Appropriations Subcommittee has drafted their bill, but it has
not been considered by the full committee. Following full
committee action, which will occur after the House returns in
September, a committee report will be released. Look for a
conference committee between House and Senate appropriators in
September.
The proposed increases in various physics-related program
budgets within the Department of Energy's Office of Science
follow. The numbers are taken from Senate Report 107-220 and
a press release from the House Appropriations Committee.
HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS PROGRAM:
Current budget: $716.1 million
Under the House bill, the budget would increase by 1.2% or
$8.8 million.
Under the Senate bill, the budget would increase by 1.9% or
$13.8 million.
NUCLEAR PHYSICS PROGRAM:
Current budget: $360.5 million
Under the House bill, the budget would increase by 6.1% or
$21.9 million.
Under the Senate bill, the budget would increase by 7.5% or
$26.9 million.
BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH PROGRAM:
Current budget: $527.4 million
Under the House bill, the budget would decrease by 4.4% or
$23.2 million.
Under the Senate bill, the budget would increase by 0.7% or
$3.8 million.
BASIC ENERGY SCIENCES PROGRAM:
Current budget: $1,003.7 million
Under the House bill, the budget would decline 0.4% or $3.7
million.
Under the Senate bill, the budget would increase by 4.1% or
$40.9 million.
FUSION ENERGY SCIENCES PROGRAM:
Current budget: $248.5 million
Under the House bill, the budget would remain flat.
Under the Senate bill, the budget would increase by 4.4% or
$10.8 million.
The following are selections from the Senate report:
THE COMMITTEE'S APPROACH TO FUNDING DOE SCIENCE PROGRAMS:
"Investment in the physical sciences and engineering plays a
critical role in enabling U.S. technological innovation and
global economic leadership. It is essential to the
development of our energy resources and utilization as well as
our defense, environment, communications and information
technologies, health and much more. Over the past 50 years,
half of U.S. economic growth has come from prior investment in
science and technological innovation. Life expectancy has
grown from 55 years in 1900 to nearly 80 years today.
"The Department of Energy is the leading source of Federal
investment for R&D facilities and fundamental research in the
physical sciences. Yet investment in the Department's R&D has
declined in constant dollars from $11,200,000,000 in 1980 to
$7,700,000,000 in 2001. As a percentage of GDP, total Federal
investment in the physical sciences and engineering has been
cut roughly in half since 1970.
"Shrinking investment in the physical sciences and engineering
poses serious risks to DOE's ability to perform its mission.
It also threatens the nation's science and technology
enterprise. DOE faces a shortage of nearly 40 percent in its
technical workforce over the next 5 years. To meet it needs,
it must compete for a shrinking pool of skilled workers with
industry, many of whose leaders also report serious shortages
of scientists and engineers.
"American educational institutions are failing to attract
sufficient numbers of U.S. students, especially women and
minorities, into undergraduate and graduate programs in the
physical sciences and engineering. For these skills we now
are more heavily dependent on foreign nations than ever
before. The H1-B visa has become a main element of U.S.
technology policy.
"As fewer foreign students choose to pursue their education in
the United States and too few U.S. students enter these
fields, our vulnerability grows. NSF reports that between
1996 and 1999, the number of Ph.D.s in science and engineering
awarded to foreign students declined by 15 percent. Only 5
percent of U.S. students now earn bachelors degrees in natural
science or engineering. Since 1986 the total number of
bachelors degrees in engineering is down 15 percent. Between
1994 and 2000, the number of Ph.D.s awarded in physics in the
United States declined by 22 percent.
"These trends must be reversed. Many DOE user facilities do
not operate at their designed capacity. As a result,
opportunities and momentum are lost as researchers and
students encounter barriers to the pursuit of inquiry of
national importance, including promising research
opportunities at the boundaries of the life sciences, physical
sciences, engineering and computer sciences. Future U.S.
global leadership and technological leadership will rely upon
today's investment in research in all the sciences and
engineering.
"The Committee strongly supports and encourages increased
investment in the research and education initiatives of the
DOE Office of Science."
HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS PROGRAM:
"The Committee recommendation includes $729,980,000 for high
energy physics. The Committee has included an additional
$5,000,000 for the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The
Committee recognizes that the High Energy Physics Advisory
Panel has recommended that the Next Linear Collider (NLC) at
the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center should proceed into
design and construction."
NUCLEAR PHYSICS PROGRAM:
"The Committee recommends $387,370,000 for nuclear physics.
The Committee recommends that the additional funds be used to
enhance operation of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
(RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Continuous
Electron Beam Accelerator Facility at the Thomas Jefferson
National Accelerator Facility in Virginia."
BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH PROGRAM:
"The Committee recommendation includes $531,215,000 for
biological and environmental research. The recommendation
includes an additional $10,000,000 above the requested level
for the Genomes to Life program and $25,000,000 in total
funding for the low dose effects program. The recommendation
also continues the free air carbon dioxide experiments at the
current year level and $3,000,000 in additional funding for
the EMSL computer.
"The Committee strongly encourages the Department to budget
for additional resources for the Genomes to Life Program in
fiscal year 2004. This program shows tremendous potential and
deserves enhanced support."
"Environmental Remediation- The Committee recommendation
includes an additional amount of $6,000,000 for a program to
evaluate improved technologies for removal of arsenic from
municipal water supplies . . . . "
BASIC ENERGY SCIENCES PROGRAM:
"The Committee recommendation includes $1,044,600,000. For
purposes of reprogramming in fiscal year 2002, the Department
may allocate funding among all operating accounts within basic
energy sciences upon written notice to the appropriate
Congressional Committees.
"The Committee recommendation includes $12,000,000 for the
Department's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive
Research and $4,500,000 in additional funding to complete
preliminary engineering and design (PED) and move to
construction at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnology.
Within available funds the Committee recommendation includes
full funding for the operation of the National Synchrotron
Light Source, the Spallation Neutron Source, and the Nanoscale
Science Centers Initiative, including $24,000,000 for design
and construction of the Center for Nanophase Materials
Sciences and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Construction
projects are all funded at the level of the administration's
request.
"The Committee is pleased with the progress of the
Department's Nanoscience Initiative. The Committee understands
the Department has recently announced its intention to fund a
Nanocenter at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The Committee
has included $1,000,000 to begin preliminary engineering and
design in fiscal year 2003 for the Nanocenter at Brookhaven
(Project 02-SC-2). The Committee strongly supports the
nanoscale science research centers.
"Additionally, the Committee recommends that the additional
funds be used to support the following important activities:
facility operations user support; completion of the
Nanoscience Research Center project engineering and design;
and additional work in computational sciences in materials and
chemistry.
"Advanced Scientific Computing Research - The Committee
recommendation provides $169,625,000 for advanced scientific
computing research."
FUSION ENERGY SCIENCES PROGRAM:
"The Committee recommendation for fusion energy sciences is
$259,310,000, an amount that is $2,000,000 above the budget
request. The Committee is aware of significantly increased
neutron yields from compressed fuel elements heated by an
extremely short pulse, high power laser beam. Such advances
promise significant acceleration of the schedule for achieving
ignition of compressed fusion pellets. Accordingly, the
Committee adds $2,000,000 to Fusion Energy Sciences for the
purpose of evaluating this so-called `fast ignition' concept.
The Department is directed to report back to the Committee no
later than August 1, 2003 with the results of this evaluation
along with any recommendations the Department would make
regarding the schedule and milestones of the High Energy
Density Physics Program."
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